Prince Harry made a “mistake” in highlighting his computer games skills as helpful in the battle against the Taliban, Afghan president Hamid Karzai said today.

But Mr Karzai, who held talks with David Cameron and Pakistan’s president Asif Ali Zardari at Chequers today, stopped short of criticising the comments by the prince who recently returned from Afghanistan after serving as an Apache helicopter co-pilot. “Prince Harry is a young man, we do give exits to young men when they make mistakes,” Mr Karzai told ITN.

Pressed further by reporter Bill Neely whether the prince had spoken “unwisely”, he added: “He is a young man and young men do make mistakes talking — all of us have gone through that period so let’s drop it there.”

Harry, 28, was condemned by the Taliban for saying of his co-pilot role: “I’m one of those people who loves playing PlayStation and Xbox, so with my thumbs I like to think I’m probably quite useful.”

Meanwhile, St James’s Palace announced that Harry is to visit to Lesotho and South Africa for three days from February 25 in support of his charity Sentebale.

In Lesotho, he will visit a centre for deaf children and a church project that cares for orphans. He will then travel to Johannesburg and speak at a gala dinner aiming to raise funds for a permanent centre for children with HIV and Aids.

After the talks at Chequers today, Mr Cameron appealed to the Taliban to join talks on Afghanistan’s future as Britain pushes on with withdrawal plans. “Now is the time for everyone to participate in a peaceful, political process,” he said.

He stressed the Afghan and Pakistani leaders had agreed to the opening of an office in the Qatari capital Doha for negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan High Peace Council.